I did look at hiveOS and didn't care for it much. So far I've found it easier to deal with Ubuntu or Xubuntu, I like XFCE, and it seems easy enough to find info for Ubuntu versus anything else.
And yes I've just spent 2hrs pouring over reviews and prices on near every video card that may be worth anything to mine with. I think I'm going to stick with nvidia's GTX 1070 but the price of the rx 470/480/580's are getting my attention. I just have no experience with AMD cards and driver installation in a Linux environment. If my pocket book allows I may even break down and force myself to hold out a week extra and go full on GTX 1080. It's a tough decision but I'm thinking in terms of long term retirement income/hobby. Something that could help me pay a few bills or maybe half my rent down the road while I go fishing.
I hear Radeon gpus are opensource hopefully won't be too bad. There might be a 500X series in the horizon. 560X, 570X, 580X series. It's expected to be a modest improvement and not a new architecture. Hopefully better priced gpus @.@!!!